Shhhh!

Shhh! Shhh Eliza's animals, be very quiet, (they are noisy and chatty) we mustn't wake our guest. You will never, ever believe who I have sleeping in the next room! I can't believe it myself. Eliza is gone to surgery to have her woman parts cauterized, leaving me and I can't believe I am actually saying this....Cupcake! in all her glory! Cupcake came to see me!(I suppose she came to see Eliza too, BUT, it is all about me on my blog) Whoo hoo! She drove an unspecified amount of time from Cupboardsburg, (more than hour, less than 24) to Doolittleville. Oh my gosh, she is cute, cute, cute, (like as in drop dead gorgeous) and TINY! A wee bit taller than myself and every so much smaller, um... boned, yes, smaller boned, that is what it is. And of course, 5 children smaller around the middle. We had breakfast without poor Eliza who wasn't allowed to eat and talked and talked. Okay, I talked and talked, Cupcake kept asking questions, so I had to answer them, didn't I? She is napping now, leaving me a moment to wallow in the fact she was willing to drive more than hour and less than 24 hours to come and visit. (And blog about it of course). Bald Man says all is well at home. Little Man misses me a bit, but not too much. I think Pea misses me more, she keeps asking for her mamaw. Dang she is cute. Things seem to be doing better in Doolittleville and I am glad to help. While Eliza is not out of the woods yet, things are improving, at least from my point of view. If you have any messages I need to pass on to Cupcake, feel free. Love to all, from the grand environs of Doolittleville, your Jo.

Sorry, No Mountains Today Folks

One, the mountains are an ugly, smoggy, can't hardly seem them mess. They are not pretty.
Two, the REAL reason there is no pics of the mountains today:



Who in the world has time for the mountains when the Deathly Hallows are calling my name? As you can see, it was an illness that has gripped the entire family.

I am off to Doolittleville tonight, to give Eliza a hand for a few days. Bald Man was very sweet about shouldering the burden of home, hearth and Little Man while I help Eliza. I have a long list of things that need to be done, bought, and packed before I can leave. Little Man also has an appointment with his doctor in the Big City this afternoon. I am proud to say that I am able to cross off the item at the top of my list, the MOST important thing I needed to do before I left. I finished the BOOK! Whoo hoo, it was really, really good. Many twists and turns. Read it, read it.
Now I just have to do things like clean, go grocey shopping so there is food around here, things like that. Nothing so very important.

So in place of the mountains, here is a treat from Casa De Tangled.




Guess who is smiling and cooing at five weeks???



The June Bug and her daddy:

Mountain Monday

First off, I have to thank all of you wonderful people out there. For enfolding me in your bloggy arms, and giving me the love and appreciation I was so needing. Sometimes life can get you down,people can be such jerks ya know? With all the wonderful comments and virtual love, I am feeling better now and that is all that counts.
That fire? The one that made my mountain pictures so ugly last week? Turned into the largest fire in Utah history. The air is starting to clear, but as you can tell, it isn't entirely gone.



I thought perhaps some sheepies would make the mountains look a wee bit better. Kind of like having your kid stand in front of you in your family pictures, so no one can see your unsightly bulges.


Like real life, the sheepies hid nothing, ah well!

Jo in Utah is feeling rather under the weather. The Princess and the Pea gave the gift that keeps on giving. The stomach flu. Remember last week when I was watching my Pea? Yeah, much vomitage ensued. After the Princess took her home, I scurried around the house with anti bacterial wipes and Clorox clean up. Yeah, what ever. Little Man began the vomiting on Friday night. I got up on Saturday feeling less than stellar. You know the worst part about Saturday? It wasn't even that I was getting it, it was that we had respite, for the first time in months and we couldn't use it. Booohoooo! I am still feeling a bit yicky, but it is improving.
So the end of my post will be the usual incessant Grandmotherly sharing of my new grand daughter, June Bug. Enjoy!







Don't ya wish you could just squeeze her cute little leggies and kiss those great big lips. Tell ya what. I'll do it for ya!

In Which the Vileness of My Life is Found Offensive

Let's face it my darling peeps. My life is vile. And more directly, my beloved little man is vile.
Remember the blog rating where my blog was found to be R-rated and not suited for children under the age of 17? For the use of the word "poop" too many times. Poop is large part my life. I talk about, I stare at it, I wash it out, I clean it up, I try to contain it, I try to make it come out, I rate it (color, consistency, amount) I call doctors over it, I discuss it with the Bald Man, daily, I discuss it with others at least weekly, other people ask me about it, poop is huge at the House of Tangled. The daily rhythm of my life is not suited for children, and I don't even watch R rated movies, they offend me too!
Others choose to be offended by the poop of my life. Others choose to judge the poop, crap, fecal matter, bowel movements of what my day to day life consists of. I don't even have to swear to make it offensive. Seems as though my son's very existence and the way he IS, offends. Well guess what? Sorry and stick it up where ever you choose. If you have an opinion about it, shut up unless you are willing to come over here and relieve me of some of the vile hours of my days.
Now I am sure my beloved readers are wondering where this rant is coming from. And I assure you, it has nothing at all to do with ANY of you. Sadly, the ones who should read this post never will. But the good of doing this is, I need to get this off my chest and I know I will feel better once I do.
For any new readers and some older ones, please buckle your seat belts, keep your arms, legs and any other body parts you wish to stay attached to, inside the vehicle. We are going for a ride on the honesty train.
People seem to be under the assumption that children with disabilities are "special" and I mean, sweet, loving, holding flowers, blowing kisses and waving at others with a sweet and age delayed hello from their wheelchairs. Angels, precious little angels. Yeah, whatever. If mine is an angel he works for the other side. He is mean, angry, violent and destructive. He has ODD. Please read the checklist. See those 8 characteristics? They rule my days. Everything is a battle. I am not exaggerating, I wish I were. Every day, we fight to get him showered, dressed, hair combed, meds ingested, teeth brushed, shoes on. Each one of those things is a battle, every day. And like many battles, some are small, and some are large, depends on the day. But I will tell you now, he always resists each and every one of those things, every day.



Daily, I am hit, I am scratched, I get called names, I get spit on, I get my hair pulled. Some days more than others, of course. Daily, I clean up pee and poop from clothes and from other places. He refuses to move his bowels without being forced to do it, often needing to be threatened with a time out or stopping a game or show he is watching. I am forced myself to deal with it, because he has soiled his underwear, again. On the weekdays I only have to do that 2 or 3 times. Weekends are oh so lovely, cause then I get to do it, usually at least 6 or 7 times daily. Even though I am saying "I", let us not forget my Bald Man who has to deal with it every day too.
We have been told, more than once, if we decide the job of parenting our boy is too much, he will be institutionalized. There just aren't a lot of places for children like him. He is hard, very hard.
In spite of all of this, we love him, we love him enough to deal with all the crap, every day, and still love him, not for what he does, but for who he is. A child, our child. We love him enough to dread that a day might come where we can't do this anymore. My deepest nightmare I pray I will never face. Enough that we have had only one weekend, away without him in almost 10 years. We love him enough to want the best for him, to rejoice for the things he accomplishes, like riding his bike. We love him enough to find the miracles. We love him enough to not hold a grudge when he is being ugly, so when he feels like it, we can still cuddle him and tickle him and laugh with him, even though just five minutes before, he had scratched me and told me I was stupid.
I deal with it in many ways. I talk to other parents who understand, who let me say what I need to. If I complain, they know I still love the boy, but he is driving me nuts right now! And if I have something to be happy about, no matter how small, they are happy with me. I blog about it, obviously! Knowing you love me and care about my family too. Another one of the ways is my black humor. I know you think the best of me, and if I say something in print, or on the phone, you know I would never say it to him. It is important to me that I acknowledge how tough it is, how difficult he can be, because if I pretend that everything is okay and he is oh so sweet, then I am being such a liar and I just couldn't do it.
I need to say it is hard and I do it anyway.
He is my Vile Child. My Beloved Beast. He is hard, but I love him anyway.

Mountain Monday and Miracles

The mountains? Yeah, not soooo pretty today.



There is a large fire in Central Utah and the smoke is blowing our way. It is ugly, smokey, smoggy and hot here. There are other things here though, near the mountains, that are much more enjoyable.

First the obligatory pool pics.



Princess' babysitter called in sick on Sat and today. I love my little stink bug, but it is messing up my routine. So grandma filled a little pool for the little precious to play in!

And now, the big news at Casa De Tangled. Raising a child with developmental delays doesn't mean they will stop developing. Kids like Little Man develop slower than other kids, and there are certain things he will probably never do. The uncertainty is the part that makes this even more miraculous. A precious moment, it brought tears to my eyes. What a kid.
We wondered if he would ever get there. This weekend he did.

A Happy Fourth

Princess was performing in a local town's Idol contest. And no big surprise, she won! Yippee, it was fun for her.



It was okay for Bald Man and I as we had to watch the Pea and Little Man in terrible heat and well, it was okay. The best part was Princess winnning and going home. That part was great.


This is the Princess and the other contestants.



You will notice Little Man, up front and smiling. Why wouldn't he smile like that at Pygmy's wedding? Little Beast and this time no one wanted him in the picture, but he wouldn't leave.

This next pic is Princess and her best friend who won the dance portion of the contest. Fun day for both of them.



And now, the rest of the story. See above picture? See that Little Man isn't in it? Well Bald Man was wrangling the Pea and I had Little Man and he would NOT keep out of the pictures. To keep him from running off, I had to pin his foot to the ground with my foot while I took the picture. You can see Princess and her friend all smiling, but what you can't see is me behind the camera, grumbling death threats at Little Man and holding him down with my foot on his foot. What I will do for a picture. Sheesh.

And for your enjoyment, a small video clip of our Princess singing. She is really good, I mean really good!



At the very end, you will see Pea running up to see her mama singing.

And now, My little June Bug! Check out this Mona Lisa smile!



And this little "oh", dang she is soooo cute!


So that was our fourth, hope yours was great.

Ya Hit Like a Gurl!

And according to the gender genie I blog like one too. In spite of my lack of fascination for some of the more girly things like shoes, make up and jewelry, the way I talk identifies me as being of the female gender. So go ahead, try it, post it, I want to hear if you blog like a girl or a boy.
And you know what? Not only am I a girl, woman, I am also a GRAND mother. You will have to excuse the lack of a mountain monday this week and instead I will share with you my little slices of heaven. Although in my defense, the pictures were taken in the apartment which is nestled in the bosom of the beautiful mountains.

A double scoop of sweetness:




Little Man was at his summer program so there was no hollering yesterday. Whew.

I have been teaching the Pea how to scoop water in a cup and dump it on my flowers. I left her on the balcony and just watched to see what she would do. First she stripped and then she did this:





Do ya like the strategically placed flower?